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Photo Credit: Nick Higgins and Ronan Killeen
When I first heard about the 30 for 30 O.J. Made in America series I thought, "Not another O.J. documentary". I was tired of watching the same thing over and over again, and I did not understand why the case was getting so much attention this year ( the tv show The People vs. O.J. Simpson aired on FX this year). Even though I did not live during the case, I felt that I did because all of the documentaries that I had watched about it. However, O.J. Made in America is different from all of the documentaries and shows about O.J. Simpson because it simply illustrated his life and the situations that molded him before he got involved in the "crime of the century". O.J. Made in American is excellent simply because of that. People who were not alive when O.J. Simpson was a premier athlete, only knew him by his association with his crime. This new film opens the eyes of many to the real Orenthal James Simpson.
1. O.J. Simpson was a big-time athlete and celebrity
As I mentioned before, I was not living during the time when O.J. Simpson was in his prime. I knew he was a football player, but the only thing I associated him with was the big case in the 1990's. So, when I watched the documentary, I was enthralled by his fame and glory as an athlete. Simpson was the man on campus at the University of Southern California where he was a star athlete. He went on to win the Heisman trophy. He was a top collegiate athlete. Then he went on to play for the Buffalo Bills where he set the record for rushing for more than 20,000 yards in a single season; it only took him 14 games to do it. From there, he returned to California to pursue an acting career.
2. O.J Simpson was immune to his race
Simpson's rise to fame was during the 60's and 70's-------a pivotal time for black culture and power. When big athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem-Abdul Jabaar), and Jim Brown pushed to boycott the 1968 Olympics because of the prevalent racial tensions, O.J. Simpson was mute. James Brown excited the black power movement when he sang, "I'm black and I'm proud"; Simpson was saying, "I'm not black; I'm O.J." He wanted to be known as O.J., the star athlete and rising celebrity and not a black star. He wanted to transcend race and be judged solely by the quality of his work. There is not really problem with wanting that, but it was like he forgot who he was. He was so caught up into the white world, that he did not think that his race mattered, which made him the perfect celebrity for white people. That is what made him marketable. He did not cause trouble and protest about the abuse that white people created for blacks; he did not remind them of their crimes. He created an erasure of his race; that is what appealed to whites. Unfortunately, like many other blacks who frivolously wish to escape their race in a white world, Simpson's race mattered in the end.
3. O.J. Simpson paved the way for athletic endorsements
Simpson's character, which was mentioned above, along with his fame and physical appeal made him very commercially marketable. He started partnerships with Chevrolet and RC, but is was his Hertz commercial (that had him running through an airport) that proved to be a racial milestone. For many black kids, seeing a black man in a popular commercial was monumental. However, the image of whites cheering Simpson on and chanting, "Go, O.J., go" ensured the appeal to white audiences.
4. O.J's dad was gay
This was the most surprising aspect of the first part. When his childhood friend Calvin Tennyson described an incident where there was a another man in a bath robe in O.J.'s dad's house, "it was obvious that he was gay". Assuming that O.J. knew, that is something that defines O.J.'s character and makes it more understandable.
Catch Part 2 of the series next Saturday on ABC.